RWD 19xx-1984 DeVille and Fleetwood,1985-1996 Fleetwood and Brougham Forum Discussion, 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread in Past Cadillac Vehicle Discussion; Originally Posted by outsider
Oh maybe it wasn't you. Someone was having a 69 restored completely with the body off ...

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Some weeks ago I changed the left signal lens, which was broken when I bought the car. Fortunately, the former owner gave me another one -somewhat cracked- but not broken.

Until I got the service manual I went crazy about how to remove the "cornering, parking and front side marker light assembly" as is named in the manual. Itīs evident that I had to remove light sockets and the three screws (missing in the left side of my car) securing top of the lamp assembly to fender and screw securing rubber filler and assembly to fender at front of wheel opening but something still retained assembly preventing it from being taken out of fender. Once I read manual I discovered that you have to remove front bumper to release the lamp assembly! The worst of it would not be removing bumper but installing it back.

Front bumper is secured to frame by 8 bolts and nuts + flat washers. The manual recommends placing a piece of masking tape on the lower edges of the front fenders behind the side marker lights and between the headlamps and parking lamps, taping the comparable bumper areas and drawing horizontal and vertical crossed lines on each piece of tape (I drew crossed lines) to help placing when reinstalling bumper. The funny thing is that some little pieces of paint went with the painter tape when removed -There you see if a car is really well painted- (Iīll touch up it with similar paint).

Itīs necessary raising the car (I did it with a jack) to work comfortably and positioning a floor type jack so as to support bumper at outer ends. I started by removing the center 4 bolts / nuts and then I removed 2 sets in the left side (itīs difficult in the last phase, as they are not ordinary bolts but rounded head bolts squared in the head base that gets into a square hole and you can not hold head easily when square base is getting out of hole. I had to hold it by pressing head with a hammer stick; the other end against inner fender). Last nut was removed but the bolt stayed there to secure flexibly the bumper end and I did not removed the right 2 bolts / nuts.

At that point I raised the car from behind the front left wheel so bumper stayed about 1-1,5" lower supported by floor jacks and finally I could extract lamp assembly to my deep rejoice (I could remove two wasp nests built inside of the lens, fortunately empty). Still some difficulty as the little bolts -2 upper and 1 lower- securing front part of assembly did not match with my metric wrenches, so I had to use my pliers and loosening spray. Then, it started to rain and rain until night so the following weekend I could end the job doing just the reverse process and taking one of the bolts of the opposite side to secure left assembly to inner fender in a safer way.

Some pics to illustrate this book (sorry if itīs too long):

This is me fighting against evil bolts and nuts. You need a really good wrench to take them out. You need doing a good effort; while unscrewing them they get warm due to friction:image uploading

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Last news about differential: The mechanic broke the new front oil seal when trying to install it in the substitute. I donīt blame him as I know itīs not an easy job -not unusual-. Heīs waiting for a new one he ordered, so letīs wait some more days...

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Some weeks ago I changed the left signal lens, which was broken when I bought the car. Fortunately, the former owner gave me another one -somewhat cracked- but not broken.

Until I got the service manual I went crazy about how to remove the "cornering, parking and front side marker light assembly" as is named in the manual. Itīs evident that I had to remove light sockets and the three screws (missing in the left side of my car) securing top of the lamp assembly to fender and screw securing rubber filler and assembly to fender at front of wheel opening but something still retained assembly preventing it from being taken out of fender. Once I read manual I discovered that you have to remove front bumper to release the lamp assembly! The worst of it would not be removing bumper but installing it back.

Front bumper is secured to frame by 8 bolts and nuts + flat washers. The manual recommends placing a piece of masking tape on the lower edges of the front fenders behind the side marker lights and between the headlamps and parking lamps, taping the comparable bumper areas and drawing horizontal and vertical crossed lines on each piece of tape (I drew crossed lines) to help placing when reinstalling bumper. The funny thing is that some little pieces of paint went with the painter tape when removed -There you see if a car is really well painted- (Iīll touch up it with similar paint).

Itīs necessary raising the car (I did it with a jack) to work comfortably and positioning a floor type jack so as to support bumper at outer ends. I started by removing the center 4 bolts / nuts and then I removed 2 sets in the left side (itīs difficult in the last phase, as they are not ordinary bolts but rounded head bolts squared in the head base that gets into a square hole and you can not hold head easily when square base is getting out of hole. I had to hold it by pressing head with a hammer stick; the other end against inner fender). Last nut was removed but the bolt stayed there to secure flexibly the bumper end and I did not removed the right 2 bolts / nuts.

At that point I raised the car from behind the front left wheel so bumper stayed about 1-1,5" lower supported by floor jacks and finally I could extract lamp assembly to my deep rejoice (I could remove two wasp nests built inside of the lens, fortunately empty). Still some difficulty as the little bolts -2 upper and 1 lower- securing front part of assembly did not match with my metric wrenches, so I had to use my pliers and loosening spray. Then, it started to rain and rain until night so the following weekend I could end the job doing just the reverse process and taking one of the bolts of the opposite side to secure left assembly to inner fender in a safer way.

Some pics to illustrate this book (sorry if itīs too long):

This is me fighting against evil bolts and nuts. You need a really good wrench to take them out. You need doing a good effort; while unscrewing them they get warm due to friction:image uploading

I always wondered why the 1977 Cadillacs trumpeted their "vastly improved ease of service". Since owning my 69 and after reading this post, I now know. Remove the front bumper to change a freakin' directional signal lens?!? What fool designed that? If he isn't dead, he needs his engineering degree revoked!

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Yeah, I think it comes from naiveté, as they assumed that this lamp assembly should be changed only when an important shock was suffered by fender and to damage this assembly, the bumper should be sensibly damaged and consequently repaired or changed. They did not thought of vandalism. I wish long life to your turn signal lights.

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Originally Posted by jayoldschool

You need some penetrating oil if your bolts/nuts are getting warm when removing.

Yeah, I sprayed a good deal of loosener before attacking them. Maybe I should have done it again during unscrewing. For the reverse operation I bathed the bolts in engine oil and operation was slightly easier but not a great deal.

The charm of the little things... And nasty surprises

Last weekend I went on cleaning and restoring little things on my caddy. I changed Steering Column Tilt Adjust Lever, as chrome was damaged irreversibly, for a perfect one I bought. I also bought an interior door courtesy lens, which was missing. I took the opportunity to remove all the lenses and clean them, as they were very dirty. When they were clean, I painted again the chrome rim they had in the edge, vanished by years of heat and rain damp. I changed some burnt bulbs (dome, trunk and glovebox), even the backup bulbs but they donīt work. Another thing to check. I also washed dome light lenses. I used engine cleaner.

I cleaned and polished chrome details and sill plates on left doors also. Look is much better. I even got lighter in rear left door work (one wire was disconnected) but I did not get window switch work. Power windows work but only if operated from the driverīs panel; not from each one switch. I tried to move once and again the window blocking switch with no results.

I also started cleaning engine compartment. I started from the front end and inner fenders, as well as washer bottle and coolant overflow bottle (really dirty and containing something similar to light mud inside that went off and refilled with coolant instead). I would like to go on cleaning head covers but it will take a lot of work as they have a thick layer of grease and dirt on (above all the right hand one).

You can also see rear window frame (with important rust signs) and a nasty surprise I got when I took out the left rear carpet in the following pics:

You can see clean lenses in the outer sides and dirty in the inner (the red is the one I bought). Dome lens is already clean:

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Originally Posted by Stingroo

Whoa I love that cloth pattern! I hope you retain it after re-upholstery.

This is an important doubt: Most people that saw the car did not like much this gold dardanelle cloth pattern... Maybe seeing it in such a bad condition contributes to this negative opinion. I was thinking of using leather with same seam pattern where the dardanelle cloth is now, and new vinyl with same color than original in the rest, but maybe leather increase budget sensibly. When I reach to the upholstering point Iīll ask SMS http://www.smsautofabrics.com/ which is the cost of the original cloth for my car (they have it in their catalog) http://www.smsautofabrics.com/produc...&pcl=c&ino=964 and if cost is sensibly lower maybe I decide using this cloth.

Re: 69 Sedan de Ville official restoration thread

Dardanelle is SO late 60s/early 70s. That whole damask paisley thing just got out of hand! It does look cool, though. Daphne cloth is more understated and very pretty with its embroidered triple sunburst pattern. Both cloths will cost between $80 and $110 from SMS. Don't know what Sierra grain leather would cost, and don't want to know what ostrich grain leather costs. But leather is so boring! I would love to see this car back in its original gold someday. With the gold cloth interior, it would be a real eye popper!

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